Paresthesia
by Kiraeon
Summary: Some nights, the past comes back to haunt you in the worst of ways. And, some nights, the person you need the most shows up just in the nick of time with the cavalry in tow to help you cope with the past. Multiship fic. Contains Checkmate, DualRival, Freedom, Ferriswheel, Shiro, and AllWrong Shipping references. In-Progress.
1. Behind Closed Eyes

_ Although things are still progressively molasses slow when it comes to Uninvited and Crazy, I am still working on the finer points, and have been getting inspired little by little. In the mean time, please enjoy other things I and my favorite fic authors have written! This one came about as a prompt meant to get me into the writing mood from tumblr user __**Natakamerry**__ and kind of took on a life of its own as a result. This is a multi-chapter fic, though all the parts have been accounted for and planned out, there will be no more than six. A warning/caution is being put into place, however, because there is some major multishipping going on in here. DualRival, Ferriswheel, Checkmate, Freedom, Shiro and other assorted ones regarding the combination of Cheren, Touko, Bel and N are included here- be it hints, or outright addressed. _

_What can I say? __**Lyra Kamiya**__ (__**Lyraeon**__ via Tumblr) and __**nidoranduran**__ (also Tumblr) are a bad influence and totally make it fun to experiment with. I'm on tumblr as well as __**Kireon**__, so don't be afraid to head over and give me copious amounts of crap for not uploading, send me questions, hate mail, or just come hang out. I don't bite and it's usually pretty silly. I also take prompts for fics/one-shots on occasion as well!_

_** /\/\/\/\/\/\/\**_

Her name was half past his lips before Cheren realized he was still half-asleep.

Sweat saturated the clean t-shirt he wore, the sticky fabric clinging to him in a strangle hold as he hooked a finger into pull it away from his throat. Skinny shoulders rose and fell rapidly as the black haired teen struggled to get his breathing back under control. His inhaler, almost forgotten, lay within reach on his nightstand, glowing softly in the slice of moonlight shining through his window. His heart beat an unstable, rapid rhythm against his chest and ribs. It still haunted him; her _voice_ still echoing in his head as he took one shallow, shuddering breath after another in an effort to calm himself. It was only a dream, he told himself, and dreams were the result of the brain's subconscious handling of situations in one's every day life, of issues left unresolved.

They weren't real; these things in his dream and the events that happened in them.

They weren't real, and they couldn't hurt him- her, they most certainly couldn't hurt _her_. There was nothing logical or rational about dreams, and as a result, he had nothing to get worked up about. Logic was key, he needed to remember how reality worked, to hold on to the knowledge it was just some stupid dream.

A familiar buzzing, tingling spread from his shaking fingers into his wrist as he swore from between tightly clenched teeth. He knocked the inhaler off the table in his haste, uttering something that would have shocked Bel and Touko both had they been around as he hunched forward, fingers on both hands gripping the damp white sheets and navy blue bedspread. _Breathe, damn it, __**Breathe**__!_ His thoughts raced, the silent command instantly washed away in the unwelcome surge of unbridled fear. He tried thinking of their smiles, of _her_ grin- triumphant and filled with life- and tried thinking of their laughter, tried to pull memories from the past to the front of his thoughts.

All he could see was her back as she continued to walk away from him, from _them_. And then her form was consumed by shadows that laughed in that half-sane way that still sent shivers down his spine; leaving nothing but the blood-stained, tattered fragments of her cap, impaled by ice that wouldn't melt.

His eyes, widened and unblinking, slowly burned with hot, bitter tears that slowly slipped down his cold cheeks. His throat felt closed up, the lump growing, thickening as it rose from somewhere in his chest towards his mouth in a scream he knew wouldn't have a sound. His legs were useless now, the pins-and-needles, that vibrating buzz had consumed him from toes clear up to his hips. He couldn't even go get someone even if he wanted to. Paralyzed, he felt the world spinning around him, found himself on his side in seconds that felt like hours- and it was all he could do to just command his increasingly unresponsive fingers to hold on to the bed covers like they were his one tenuous grasp on reality.

Cheren squeezed his eyes shut, tears continuing their heated tracks down his numb face as one impossibly heavy arm wrapped around himself, fingers of one hand digging into his bony shoulder in an attempt to hold himself together while he felt himself falling apart. In an instant, he had gone from a man to a little boy- and he didn't know how to make the transition back.

The dream, the laughter, that _one_ image that stuck with him, all of it kept circling in his head. Unending, always looping back like some demented time loop, some kind of broken record-

Fingers moved through his hair, gently massaged his scalp and seemed to reach down deep into his mind where the thoughts, the fear persisted. Calloused and rough, but still unimaginably strong and gentle were the hands that pulled him up and into an equally warm, if slightly too skinny body. There were familiar arms wrapped around his chest and shoulders, and a scent that felt like home surrounded him in an instant. He choked, gasping for breath as hard plastic found its way between his lips and something bitter and acrid coated the back of his tongue and shot down his throat. He froze, holding it in until she removed the plastic piece from his mouth and loosed it in a hitched breath.

He knew her voice, knew she was speaking to him, but his brain wouldn't allow him to focus enough to make out the words- and the only thing he could do was press himself closer to her, frantic to hold on to her, to confirm for himself that she was real, that he wasn't hallucinating or having another dream. Her words stopped, eventually, and all that was left was a steady, more than slightly off-key humming that she'd done ever since she'd found him like this the first time, all those years ago. He could breathe better, just a little, but the chaotic wreck inside his brain wasn't done, wasn't through with him yet. And the sound of her voice just broke him more.

The tears fell anew as Cheren rolled to his stomach, burying his face into her legs in shame as sobs shook him, muffled by her chest and shoulder as she held him firmly, her hands roaming in a soothing pattern up and down his back and her lips pressing gentle kisses atop his head, against a sweat-dampened forehead.

It seemed like hours later when he calmed down enough that he could actually feel his body again, instead of just the constant tuning-fork-dinged-against-the-side-of-a-table humming and vibration that stole most of his ability to think. Her off-key, wordless song had stopped too, though the one hand he hadn't claimed was still moving in soft circles around his back. "How'd you know?" He asked, too exhausted to be cranky with her.

"Bel, you know how she is." Came the instant response, calm and in that same soothing tone she always used on him post-attack even as one hand slipped off his back, cold fingers slipping through to entwine with his own damp, shaking ones. "She's got a knack for that kind of thing, she always knew whenever I was having a bad night too."

A bad night, funny how those three words made something so exhausting sound so... simple, and not as stupid as he felt it was. Touko didn't get them anywhere close to as often as he did, and she was particularly stubborn about trying to hide hers in ways he wasn't. Cheren's chest hurt just thinking about the haunted look on her face, of the telltale signs of tear tracks down her cheeks and the shadows beneath her eyes from a lack of sleep- a state he knew all too well.

"She's such a _wife_," he grumbled half-heartedly, secretly pleased that Bel was still attuned to him enough that she knew things weren't right. She denied being psychic, and refused to get tested by Sabrina or Morty whenever they were in Unova, and she always managed to be on the other side of the region whenever Caitlin came by the gym to inspect him. Either she was lying, which she was terrible at doing if they were being honest, or she was afraid it would change things, or change _her_ for the worse, and thus didn't want to deal with it; which was more likely. "don't know what to do with her."

He could feel the eye roll from there, but the brunette didn't comment.

"You gonna tell me about it?" Touko asked after another period of semi-awkward silence. She never could leave a subject alone for very long, not when she couldn't find the reason "why" behind something. _Probably why Reshiram chose me in the long run, I have to know the truth, the reality of a situation even if it's ugly._ It was a disturbing thought, knowing that she'd rather cast aside any pretenses of an easy, and light filled life if it meant living a lie.

Cheren's hand involuntarily squeezed her own, tight enough she looked down at him sharply, noting the pallor to his skin. He wouldn't look at her, and that small thing alone told her a number of things right off the bat. It was personal- and it had to do with her. "Did I die having sex with you or something?" She asked, finally, unable to resist attempting to lighten up the mood and get his mind focused on something else for a moment.

Her best friend's face twisted into a disbelieving, thunderous scowl at the same time his pale cheeks flooded red. "Die having- you've gone and lost your mind." He snapped at her, clearly embarrassed by the idea- and that she'd guessed, correctly, that he'd had a dream or two regarding the two of them. Not that he was _admitting_ anything, but the evidence was on his face and his adamant refusal to look at her all the more.

"...you _totally_ dreamed about us having sex!" She used her free hand to shove his shoulder, feeling a slow burn on her own cheeks. For reasons she already knew, she was grinning like an idiot. "You jerk, why didn't you tell me? Was I any good?"

"Were you any-" Cheren spluttered, glaring at her through the messy tangle of his bangs. "Did you come here just to ask stupid questions?" He was _not_ going to divulge any of his personal information regarding his dreams of her, thank you very much. She could put him in a scissor hold with those long, beautifully toned legs all she wanted, he wouldn't talk.

Blue eyes glittered, as did the wicked grin she gave him as he shoved himself out of her chest and shoulder, just sitting beside her- or rather, in front of her, sort of. "No, but you don't seem willing to talk about the thing that set you off, so I figured I'd try guessing until I got it right."

In layman's terms, she was messing with him until he felt stable enough to tell her. Great. Fantastic, his best friend thought teasing him over hormonal dreams was a better idea than just getting straight to the point. Cheren wondered again what he'd done to deserve such friends. Probably had something to do with annoying the hell out of them, and being a bit of a snitch, during their grade school years. Puberty hit and then the tables had turned, now she won regardless of what he tried- in _and_ out of dreams.

The world just wasn't fair.

"You've met her by now, I'm sure," Cheren began after a while of scowling and sighing. "Rosa, I mean. Or Mei, whatever the hell she calls herself outside of PokeWood these days. Anyway, she's the one who found Kyurem while Nate- Kyouhei, whatever he decides to call himself these days, your family and their whole dual naming is strange, just so you know- took care of loose ends over in Humilau with Marlon." He was babbling, and the teen knew it well. His grip on her hand tightened, and he dared to reach out and grab the other. He had to hold on to her, to remind himself that she was _here_, with him, and not _there_.

He _needed_ to hold her- just for a little while.

"She stumbled into Kyurem's lair, why or how, I don't know, she wouldn't tell me that much. When she got there," He closed his eyes against the sounds, tinny and distant though they'd been, at the images that had come in from Rosa's Versus Recorder- and the way the girl's teal eyes had shimmered over, her voice had grown quiet and had trembled just a little while the video played.

Touko's fingers closed over his, a squeeze from her hands drawing him out of the memory. She'd said nothing, though the expression on her face was enough for the Gym Leader to guess at her thoughts. Her eyes searched his face, taking in everything that he hadn't said, but showed on his expression nevertheless.

Cheren swallowed hard and forced himself to continue. "When she got there, Ghetsis was there, with Kyurem, waiting for her." He felt the involuntary tightening of her grip at the mention of the Team Plasma leader's name, and somehow knowing that she reacted only made things easier for him to go on with the tale. "It... might be easier just to _show_ you, but, she was attacked. He- well, you know how insane he is, you were there before." Back when Team Plasma had threatened Unova the first time, using N as a puppet, a figure head while secretly doing things behind the older boy's back that had shocked, had _devastated_ him upon revelation. It had been Touko then, back at that time, who'd stood where Rosa had, and who'd stared down an unstable madman who had nothing left to lose.

"What happened?" Her voice was strained, as tense as the iron-clad grip on his hands was. She would be trembling, if he looked, though he couldn't honestly tell the difference between his shaking and her own at this point.

His tongue darted out, wetted dry, chapped lips as he cleared his throat and forged ahead. He was strong now, much stronger than he'd been even just a month ago. He could do this. He could tell his best friend what haunted him at night some times. "He tried to kill her." Cheren's voice cracked and his eyes closed as the sheer strength of emotion swept over him once again.


	2. Honesty

_ This just will not leave my head and keeps distracting me from other fics and writings. So, I figure just indulge it and it'll be one plot bunny sated and taken care of. Hopefully, the completion of that will allow me to return to Uninvited and thus continue it on like I really want to. Planning is still, ongoing, and there may be an editing/revision of previous chapters if things continue the way I think they need to go. There are only four chapters left in this little ficlet, so it won't be terribly long- unless all the chapters go as long as this one certainly did._

_ Please enjoy the read!_

**/\/\/\/\**

"Does it bother you?" N's voice broke the weighty silence in the kitchen as Bel scurried about, checking the kettle for the fourteenth time in five minutes. Neither one of them looked towards the stairs leading up to Cheren's bedroom. The green haired trainer had spent the last ten or fifteen minutes gazing tensely out the kitchen window with one long leg crossed over the other while Bel had busied herself in making something edible that took quite a bit more preparation than he suspected was necessary.

Bel paused in her actions, sending the tall man a surprised, and somewhat confused look as she removed the kettle second before it could whistle. "I'm not sure what you mean," she confessed, sounding somewhat embarrassed. "does what bother me?"

N remained somewhat of a curiosity to her. He was a somewhat mysterious person- kind of like a character off one of the spy shows that Cheren pretended he didn't like anymore. One of the ones where there was some super cute agent whose loyalties were always questionable until the very end of the series when their true colors were revealed. She wasn't sure how to treat him kind of as a result of that, and because everything she knew about him had come from Touko or Cheren.

His brow furrowed, mouth forming a tight line as he thought about his response. She kind of liked that about him, being able to watch him think and know that he chose his every word like each one was important. "That he," N stopped himself, shaking his head with a frown. "no, that's impolite, I apologize. Let me try that again; does it bother you that Cheren..." another pause, brow furrowing to the point a deep wrinkle formed in the space above the bridge of his nose. "prefers Touko rather than you in this situation?"

_Ah ha, so _that's_ what's been making him all scowly and broody._ Some part of Bel felt pleased by this discovery. N always seemed so mature, awkward at times and prone to some rather sharp but embarrassing observations, but still cool and mature nonetheless. His words just assured her that he was just as unsure and insecure as anyone else in a relationship could be, in the beginning. Which, sad and pathetic as it felt, made her feel better that he _wasn't_ the all knowing, all experienced person his quiet but imposing charisma had the tendency to imply.

Then again, he'd made one really crazy leap from a regular relationship to being in some really complicated addition to the unofficial relationship she, Cheren and Touko had naturally fallen into over the years.

"Umm, that's kinda... complicated." She replied, hesitant but honest in her words as she set to pouring hot water into individual mugs, offering the first one to N before taking a seat with her own pink and purple one at the kitchen table. Mint filled the air as she stared at the steeping bag, as if hoping it would give her the words _she_ needed to explain things without coming across as a total jerk or a bitter girlfriend.

Silence, aside from the shift of movement and creak of wood signaling N's almost silent act of sitting the chair across from her as she set the plain white mug on the table in front of him.

Cheren's mug was dark blue with a cream colored interior- she'd called it boring while he insisted it was practical- and was placed on the counter beside the Audino faced mug that served as Touko's. _Gonna have to take Touko and Cheren shopping, N can't be the only one with a plain mug, it's like he's not one of us._ Bel realized as she pinpointed the reason behind the mug's jarring appearance compared to the neatly pressed blue and white checkered tablecloth. It was a guest mug, something you'd give someone who was visiting and wouldn't be staying long. N was _definitely_ not going anywhere any time soon- not with out any of them, at least. Touko would know his likes the best, and Cheren would make sure she and Touko wouldn't get _too_ out of hand with something crazy and ill suited for him.

"It's not that it hurts my feelings," she began hesitantly. "'cause I'd be lying if I said it didn't... but I know I'm not as reliable," a pause, and then a sad smile. "or as strong as she is in this kind of situation, and that's why Cheren needs _her_, and not me right now."

A bittersweet chuckle at the disbelief on his face. "I start crying right along with him, which makes him even _more_ upset than he is already and makes _me_ feel even worse, because I'm supposed to be making him feel better and cheering him up." She made a face as her eyes flicked quickly up and then back down to the tea. "Then Touko has to deal with _two_ crying people instead of just one." Which was true, as much as she hated to admit it. Cheren and Touko were always the ones to jump in and protect her sensitive little feelings- a sticking point that'd always bothered her. But she'd never been able to, regardless of how she'd tried, find a way to control or even hide what she felt the way those two always could.

She could feel his eyes on her, studying what he could see of her expression, weighing her words against, and alongside, her body language to come to some kind of conclusion about her. Flustered and hoping she wasn't making the worst impression on him ever, Bel tried to elaborate a little more on what she'd meant. "I don't have the way with words that she does, or that something that makes people believe me when I tell them everything's gonna be okay."

Bel crinkled her nose a little, making a face. "And I _definitely_ don't have Cheren's sense of humor, you know? That whole 'I'm going to be a bossy pants about the technical aspects of what's going on and say rude things on purpose to make people get mad, or laugh because I'm being ridiculous' thing he always does. It used to make me _so mad_ that he'd go off and do that whenever I was upset." Her eyes narrowed for a moment. "And then I realized _why_ he was doing it and it just made me wanna _smack_ him every time he did it."

There was an odd sound, a little too broken up to be a cough and she looked up in surprise to see N covering his mouth with one hand. His slate blue eyes were crinkled in the corners as he tried his best to stifle the sound of his laugh. "My apologies," he said from behind his hand, voice still filled with poorly disguised mirth. "I shouldn't be laughing, it's just... your expression struck me as very amusing at that moment, and your impression of his habit of offering his own unique form of, ahh, comfort was rather comical."

The conversation should have bummed her out, she never liked thinking about how Cheren usually preferred Touko over her in a crisis, and how she was always left by herself, alone to make tea in the kitchen until Touko would come down and give the okay for her to go up and comfort their boyfriend.

But the expression on N's face, half covered by that large, fine boned hand with its criss-cross network of old, pale scars, and that soft laugh was infectious- and it got an answering giggle out of her.

It felt good, Bel realized suddenly. It felt good having someone else down there, waiting with her instead of being worried all alone. She'd been worried about assimilating a fourth person into the already complicated little triangle they had... but, somehow, this whole four sides of the relationship thing was really starting to work. Maybe she and N wouldn't be the kind of lovey-dovey romantic that she liked being with Cheren, or the snuggly and comfortable type of relationship she had with Touko, but they could have their own little relationship, unique only to the two of them like Cheren and Touko had their little thing, and like how N and Touko did too.

She wondered just how often he'd had to wait for someone, or something, in his life- and if he felt as relieved to have someone there with him too.

"Touko's home, you know?" She broke the comfortable silence that had followed after their quiet, shared laugher had ceased. Green eyes gazed across the table at N, wanting to see if he understood the meaning behind her words. "Like, no matter where we were in Unova, if she's there with us? We're home and everything is good." Lifting her mug, she blew softly into the contents, trying to cool it down so she wouldn't burn her tongue. Lashes half lowered, Bel peered over the rim, noting the contemplative look on the young man's face. _...oops, I forgot. Home might be a bad word for him, given what Touko said._ She could still remember the look on Touko's face, her fingers tightly laced with theirs as they curled up on the bed together, as she talked about what she'd found in N's castle and what she'd learned about him.

His story was a lot worse than hers, and she'd recognized some of the same behaviors in Ghetsis that her own father displayed.

"Um, it's kinda like... Touko's just this person you can't help but fall in love with when you meet her and get to know her better. She's always this safe place you can run to if everything sucks. I used to think that nothing bad would ever happen as long as I was with her." _Still do, actually... bad things stay away from me and go after her instead._ She nibbled her bottom lip a bit at the thought that came unbidden. "I knew Cheren fell for her when we were, like, _ten_ or something like that, and I _think_ I was around thirteen when I realized I loved her too- in a lot of the same ways I knew I really loved Cheren." She fumbled, hastily trying to correct herself to avoid causing N to remember anything painful. They were having a _moment_, she didn't wanna be the one to go and mess it all up. "But, you know what? I think Touko's just the kind of person who, you know, just _loves_; I really wonder sometimes if she really gets that there's much of a difference between loving and _being_ in love with people."

N blinked at that, intrigue replacing the uncomfortable look on his face. "The difference between loving and being in love with someone?" His hand had dropped from his mouth, back to the heated ceramic.

Bel perked up at the inquiry. Shoving the red half-rimmed glasses back up her nose almost too enthusiastically to the point of nearly smashing the lenses into her eyes, the blonde excitedly expanded upon her statement. "Yeah! See, like, there's different types of love you can have for a person; there's familial love- like you'd have for a sibling or a parent. There's platonic love- which is what you have for someone you think is just a really special and good friend but in a not-romantic way. There's, um," her cheeks heated up, turning a rosy shade of pink that only deepened the interest on N's face as he watched her squirm a little in her seat. "there's the kind of love you express for someone you're s-sexually attracted to- that's a physical kind of love. And there's the kind of love that's like, right in here," she pressed a hand over her heart. "you feel it really deep down, and that person means _everything_ to you and you'd just be, you know, totally lost without them around and want them to be around even when they drive you nuts."

More silence, Bel squirmed more, embarrassed. "And then there's the other one. The kind of love where you just wanna take their hand and hold on to it forever and wake up next to them forever; you just love them in the way all the others are defined- and more, somehow."

She peeked up through her bangs at him, noticing that he was still interested, if maybe a little confused because she'd totally gone off the rail with discussing her own opinion on the kind of 'true' or 'pure romantic' love. "Touko knows about familial love, and I'm pretty sure she's got that Hugh guy tagged on that, she likes to pick on him a lot for some reason- kinda like she does with Touya, you know?"

N nodded in response, still listening as she enthusiastically carried on with the same interested look on his face as before. He enjoyed her energetic approach, and wondered if it was something that came naturally to her or came from extended exposure to Professor Juniper during her research.

"I don't think she's ever _told_ me anything abou-" Bel stopped, realizing who she was talking to and what she'd been about to get into. "umm, nevermind." Her blush returned tenfold, and N's eyes crinkled at the corners again, though the smile was barely restrained in favor of the polite listening face he'd had on. _Shoot, I'm gonna get it for that one._ She made a silent promise to apologize to Touko for the inevitable awkward conversation. "But when it comes to the two last kinds of love that I was talking about... I don't know if she can separate the two- or if they're even separated in her mind." She finished hastily, hoping to get N's mind off of the love she'd skipped.

N seemed to mull it over. "I'm not sure I understand," he finally replied reluctantly, looking disappointed that he'd failed to grasp something complicated the first time it was explained to him. "but I do believe that she loves you and Cheren very deeply, and very fiercely." Bel found herself fascinated by the smile on his face- how gentle, loving and full of fondness it was while he spoke. "So I would be comfortable stating that she very likely feels the kind of love towards the two of you that you described as being the type that makes her wish to wake beside you forever."

A pause, his expression returned to curious as he studied her with that intense gaze of his again. "You said earlier that you didn't have a way with words," another kind of smile, one she couldn't really figure out. "I think you underestimate yourself, Bel, you have quite the gift with words when the subject is right."

Her face flamed at the sound of her name and she hastily hid it, taking great gulps of the barely-cool-enough-to-drink tea to distract herself from the unexpected praise. She'd been complimented on being so sweet and forgiving, on being willing to help and being accommodating- but never for having a way with words.

"I wonder which category I fall under?" N mused to himself, turning over the idea of the different types of love in his head. It was an interesting theory, and when they went home, he'd have to steal Touko's computer and do some further research on the subject himself. Touko herself, as far as he was concerned, had a high chance of falling under that 'forever' type of love that Bel had so passionately spoken about. It had been quite an unexpected revelation when it'd finally clicked that he didn't want to stay away from her, even after saying thank you and expressing his gratitude and feelings- confused as they were- towards her and all that she'd done.

But he hadn't even taken the time to think about what Cheren and Bel meant to him either, and that, somehow, felt wrong. It felt... like he hadn't been investing himself, making the effort they may have been to make things work. Bel was certainly an unexpected, and not unwelcome, surprise. Her strengths were well hidden beneath her relatively passive, if enthusiastic, personality.

…but, did Cheren even _see_ him as anything other than an annoyance to be tolerated?

"You're thinking about Cheren, aren't you?"

N looked up to see Bel trying her hardest not to smile- and failing miserably while she was at it. "Yes, I am, or was, rather." he replied slowly, watching her with some degree of trepidation. She'd seen directly into what he was thinking? Perhaps she had a degree of talent herself, of sorts? "What gave you that impression, if I may ask?"

She tapped the space between her eyebrows, not even bothering to hide the smile anymore. "You do the same thing Touko does when she's really mad at him; you get this little wrinkle right here." And giggled at the disgruntled look on his face, hurrying to reassure him. "It's not just you two- he has that effect on a _lot_ of people. I think I heard Alder saying he had a tic in his eye that wouldn't leave for, like, a whole _week_ after dealing with Cheren for all of two days."

Well, at least he wasn't the only one vexed by the Gym Leader. The news that Alder had been driven to exasperation was a small enough comfort.

"If it's any help, I think you're a forever-type for her; just like me and Cheren." Bel's voice had suddenly turned shy, and he was snapped out of his contemplation about how one person could be so frustrating to such a high number of people. The green eyed researcher was deliberately _not_ looking at him, small pale fingers clutching the handle of the pink mug like it would keep her from being swept away.

"Truly?" N hated the amount of longing in that word. Having the urge to need another person in this particular manner was still disquieting for the former Team Plasma leader. Particularly since he'd been groomed to believe anyone other than the Seven Sages, Ghetsis and the abused, abandoned Pokemon he healed were unable to be trusted. Even Concordia and Anthea had been held at arm's length- or had kept _him_ at arm's length.

She risked a glance at him and nodded a little. "Uh-huh, really." Her eyes dropped again, teeth worrying her lower lip as she deliberated and took the chance. "I, um, don't know yet for sure but, you're kinda seeming like a forever-type for me too," she rushed on without giving him a chance to response. "and don't tell Cheren I told you this, but he doesn't _not _like you as much as he makes you think. I don't think he ever thought he'd like a _guy_ like he does Touko and me, so you being an exception kinda weirds him out right now." Bel giggled at the blank look on the older trainer's face. "He only really doesn't like you for silly reasons like being taller than him and he knows he's being unreasonable."

N seemed ready to say something, maybe ask her more questions, and paused before he could speak. _Maybe this is what she means by his 'listening' pose?_ Bel mused, staying as still as she could to try and figure out what he was doing. His eyes met hers for a scant moment as the fourth step creaked beneath someone's weight as they descended. His head turned instinctively as one naked foot and equally naked leg emerged from the shadows of the unlit stairwell to reveal the tired, though preoccupied looking face of their girlfriend.

She watched, fascinated at the way his body language immediately changed from relaxed to coiled and ready to spring into action. Blinking rapidly to shake unneeded cobwebs from her mind and rose from her seat. "Made you some tea, it's still hot- I think." How long had she and N been down there? Bel realized she'd lost track of the time, glancing at the plain circular face of the kitchen clock. A little over an hour had passed, five past two in the morning.

N caught her eye as Touko passed, still deep in whatever troubled thoughts were circling in her head, and shook his head ever so slightly. "Don't." He mouthed to her, offering one of his brief, tense smiles before his eyes returned to Touko.

"Should I...?" The blonde asked, hesitant to break the younger girl's train of thought, though she was anxious to know if Cheren needed her or if she needed to stay down there for the brunette's sake. More heavy silence met her in response, and another look was exchanged between she and N as a result. _At least I'm not the only one worried about her now._ She realized the same look she had on her face on his own and offered him one of her wobbly smiles in response. "Tou?" She asked plaintively, knowing her tone of voice, if nothing else, would catch the blue eyed former Champion's attention.

Rapid blinking as she started, cursing under her breath as some of the tea sloshed out of the mug on to the counter. "Yeah, you're up." A still distracted response, but she'd take it and leave Touko in N's hands.

_Something tells me they have stuff to talk about, and I don't think it's gonna be fun._ Bel thought to herself with a frown at the tension lined in her friend's shoulders. _Take care of her_, she mouthed to N. Solemn slate blue eyes met hers for an instant, a nod and a _Good luck_, was mouthed to her in return. His hand caught hers, just for a moment as she passed him by. She jumped, heart racing as she looked at N in surprise. Another nod, this one... different in meaning, somehow, as he gently squeezed her hand and released her to go up the stairs.

Bel didn't know whether or not to feel flattered, or worried that she felt the weight of N's intense gaze on her back until she was out of his sight.


End file.
